Old to new pairs
A fairly big surprise to the team this year was Danny and Jaune both experiencing a successful breeding season; but separately! Danny and Jaune were always seen as a pair in previous years. Always arriving together at the aviary and seen flying and building nests in various places in Corbiere. However, this year, both choughs paired with a different bird in the flock. Danny paired with Pyrrho after the loss of Green and Jaune paired with Aspen after Danny re-paired. Danny and Jaune had been seen building nests as a pair for two consecutive years with no real success. It could be that the pair lacked maturity, or perhaps Danny & Jaune were never truly a pair; maybe they were just close friends after all!

Aspen & Jaune with two hungry chicks at Corbiere. Photograph by Julie Blampied.

Another first!
Another fantastic surprise this year was from another new pair Alder and Wally Jnr, who were seen with one chick on 13^th July at the aviary. This is the very first breeding attempt for both of these birds. Both parents hatched in the wild, Wally Jnr in 2021 and Alder in 2022. The team have watched these two choughs grow closer over the past year; often observed arriving at the aviary together as well as allopreening. Over the course of the breeding season they were often absent at the aviary and so we had been hoping they were practicing their nesting abilities. When they showed up with a begging youngster in tow, we couldn’t have been happier! Since carrying out catch ups at the aviary to ring the remaining chicks they’ve become quite elusive, which isn’t surprising – who would want to be caught anyway!?

What the choughs think of all the catch ups. Photograph by Charlotte Dean.

A plaque of gratitude
A plaque has been hung on the aviary to acknowledge our gratitude to the Jersey Country Enhancement Scheme for funding the chough project. Their funding has enabled us to replace the old holey netting and wooden aviary framework.

Our bright plaque to show our gratitude to the Jersey Country Enhancement Scheme. Photograph by Charlotte Dean.

Breeding season summary
This year’s breeding season has been a huge success! We’ve had the greatest number of chicks hatched since the project began; a whopping 26 chicks from ten breeding pairs. Three of those pairs were first time breeders! Only six chicks of those chicks didn’t fledge, making our overall fledging success rate 77%. It’s safe to say that the aviary has been pretty chaotic this summer. All 20 ‘choughlets’ have been ringed and added to our chough ID list, which can be found on our website ‘Chough ID list’. Our current island population stands at 66 choughs! 12 of the original captive-released choughs and 54 wild-hatched choughs. So, if you enjoy walking around Jersey’s countryside and bird watching, be sure to report your sightings via this link: ‘Seen a chough? – Birds on the edge’.

Sakura, a chough from Minty & Rey’s clutch with their identifier rings attached. Black for the year and Cerise as their individual identifier. Photograph by Charlotte Dean.

Table 1, each breeding pairs fledgling success.

Where have you seen the choughs?
During July, most of our chough sightings across the island have been in various places in Grosnez; with groups of up to five seen either near the castle, near the car park or along the cliffs. The second most popular area has been Corbiere; one group being a family group (Aspen, Jaune and their two choughlets) whose photograph can be seen above. Other sightings were seen across St Ouens, St Brelade and St Helier.

In August, the choughs were reported in Corbiere the most, once with a flock of 12. Second most popular sights were recorded from several areas in St Ouen, including Mont Matthieu, St Ouens pond and around the sea cliffs. Large groups were also seen flying over the cliff paths of Crabbe and Devils hole. On the other side of the island choughs had also been spotted. In Noirmont, a pair is regularly spotted by a local twitcher.

September brought the most consistent sightings of two choughs at Noirmont. However, the place seen with the largest flocking number of choughs were in Corbiere with 16; closely followed by 12 spotted over Petit port. The choughs were also seen across St Ouen, Crabbe, Les Landes, Greve de Lecq, Overdale and St Helier.

Our chough student (Phillip), gaining some hands-on experience with the choughs. Photograph by Charlotte Dean.